[CF-Devel] New Skill System (Draft)

[Todd Mitchell]

"If you have a lot of special cases then the design is wrong" - old
programmer

I think that there are a lot of different special cases here - could some of
these be cleaned up?
It would be good to have most skills work in a similar way rather than have
some skills non-improvable and some single purpose - even if this means
rewriting lots of the skill it would be worth it.  Some things like literacy
and inscription, or find/remove traps could be merged - others could be part
of a bigger skill (punching, kicking and karate could be hand-to hand
combat)  Things that give only one ability like jumping are really
abilities - not skills, and maybe shouldnt be in here.
This also applies to all the racial type 'skills' that are not improvable
(and maybe even to the ones that are which sould be strictly level based
anyway like fire-touch or flying and the like.)
Also - don't take away classes - I think most people would like a quick
character generation system and even if they did have the option to go from
scratch, most people would choose a 'class like' skillset anyway.

>
     
     
     >
     
      >Non-improvable (bought at minimum level)
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >mountaineer - base cost 2
     
     >
     
      >meditation - base cost 15
     
     >
     
      >jumping - base cost 3
     
     >
     
      >sense magic - base cost 2 /* these give small experience, but do not
     
     improve
>
     
      */
     
     >
     
      >sense curse - base cost 2
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
      Cannot see why sense magic and sense curse couldn't be improved.
     
     

Certainly - sense magic, sense curse and meditation could all be improved to
scale with level.  Any kind of terrain movement skill (jumping, mountaineer,
swim...) might be better as an ability rather than a skill

>
     
      >base cost 1 (non combat - single purpose)
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >hiding
     
     >
     
      >literacy
     
     >
     
      >disarm traps
     
     >
     
      >lockpicking (start at level 2, skill object gives level 1)
     
     >
     
      >inscription ""              ""                        ""
     
     >
     
      >singing
     
     >
     
      >oratory
     
     >
     
      >find traps
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
     
     find/remove traps could be one bigger skill, or if you wanted to get fancy
you could have two distinct thief type skills - hiding/stealing and
find/remove-traps/lockpicking

literacy and inscription could be merged, or changed into to abilities.    I
hate having different levels of literacy since it means you have to set
upteen levels of books for different literacy levels and this is just not
going to be sustainable.  Now if you had literacy/inscription and some lore
type identify thing as a skill this would be cool - you can read stuff at
lowest level, but if you spend the points you get better at inscribing and
identifying stuff.

>
     
      >base cost 1
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >use magic item (will award experience but will not scale)
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
      Cannot see why using a magical item should reward you any experience at
     
     all.
>
     
      After all, it is the object that makes the job, not you.
     
     
ya use magic item isn't a real skill and I don't think it really adds
anyting to the game - especially with ego around to manage some of the
greater magic items.  I say drop this one altogether.  Or make it an ability
so you can block it in certain characters.  Enev then it would be better if
use magic item was a player force that modified somehow the sucess of using
a magic item (rod,staff,wand,scroll).  Say trolls, dwarves and half-orcs had
a negative modifier when using wands and scrolls and dragons and elves had a
slight positive modifier.

>
     
      >base cost 1 (sissy fighting)
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >throwing
     
     >
     
      >punching
     
     >
     
      >
     
     
you think hand-to hand combat is sissy fighting and yet you flounce around
with 3 feet of steel between you and your opponent?

>
     
      >base cost 2 (weak physical combat)
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >karate
     
     >
     
      >flame touch /* fireborn start w/ this.. dont let anyone else have it */
     
     >
     
      >missile weapons
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
      I find it rather strange that missile weapons is classified under 'weak
     
     >
     
      physical combat'.
     
     
I find this strange as well - seems to me that missile combat gets the worst
rap in this game when it could be so cool and encourage multiplayer (or non
brute play) so much.  I vote for a big missile combat revival.  Make it a
primary dexterity skill and add damage (due to accuracy effects).  This
would require some new blocking codes to allow more open maps where missile
combat could be more effective (instead of the maze/door approach to ) but
would be way worth it.

>
     
     
     >
     
      >base cost 3 (weaker melee weapons)
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >bludgeoning (hammers, maces, quarterstaffs)
     
     >
     
      >piercing (spears, polearms, daggers(?))
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
      >base cost 4 (most powerful artifacts / common weapons)
     
     >
     
      >--
     
     >
     
      >slashing (swords, axes, katanas)
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
      I've difficulties to understand why slashing weapons skills would cost
     
     more
>
     
      than bludgeoning and piercing weapons (Clearly, spear is a weapon more
     
     >
     
      difficult to master than a sword or an axe). Cannot understand why a bow
     
     >
     
      should be considered an 'easier' weapon - I'd tend to say it is a more
     
     >
     
      difficult one.
     
     >
     
     
     I don't know if you really need to seperate the weapon damage types into
different skills - seems a bit nitpicky to me since the play effect is the
same really.   I could see a skill difference between one and two handed
weapons?  How about shield use?